Sleaford has been named as a hotspot for traspassers and vandalism on the railways as the warmer weather arrives police and Network Rail officials have been warning people about the risks and dangers.
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00:00 Sleaford has been identified as a hotspot for dangerous behaviour on and around railway lines
00:06 and Network Rail officials working with British Transport Police have spent a day in the town to get all ladies on track with safety awareness.
00:13 Hi I'm at Boston Road Recreation Ground in Sleaford this afternoon and we've got...
00:17 Hi I'm Hayley Manners, I'm a Community Safety Manager and I work for Network Rail.
00:21 And I'm Sergeant Ryan Moritz, I'm with the British Transport Police and work closely with Network Rail to help us to structure the train to take us to Derby.
00:30 Great, and so just talk to us a bit about what you're doing today and what you're hoping to do.
00:34 Okay, so part of my role is looking at safety within the community, so from data that I received from the British Transport Police and also data that we use with Network Rail,
00:45 it has identified that Sleaford is one of the high risk locations at the moment for trespass and vandalism within the area.
00:53 So our aim today is to speak with the general public in regards to the railway and how they can keep themselves safe on and around the railway and just educating them really.
01:06 We have got a survey in which we are doing at the moment just to test people's knowledge and then from that I can analyse it and when I do do school visits or server engagement days
01:17 I can have a look at what people know and what they don't know and that's what we can focus our days on as well.
01:24 Great, so when you say it's a high risk area, why is that? What do you mean by that?
01:30 It's in regards to people misusing the railway, so they are trespassing and so what I mean by that is that they are taking shortcuts across the railway and not using it correctly.
01:41 Which obviously is where the British Transport Police come in in regards to controls and things like that to keep people safe.
01:48 So that's what I mean by high risk, obviously there's a lot of trespassing happening within the Sleaford area and we're trying to tackle that and try and reduce it.
01:56 Are there certain areas of the Sleaford area that are sort of hot spots for you?
02:01 Yes, so what we've been looking at predominantly, we've seen the data from, and this is really seasonal,
02:07 when the improved weather comes out we've seen a lot more trespassing in the East Junction, South Junction area which is associated with buses crossing.
02:18 Level crossing misuse, as you pointed out earlier when we were speaking by the station,
02:25 and then we've seen vandalism consistently over recent years at the railway station and as people are probably aware of locally,
02:32 the overbridge is boarded up with chipboard and the windows kept getting damaged.
02:37 So there are the sort of three key issues that we're looking at in the Sleaford area.
02:41 And also to add on to what Ryan said about seasonal, we have included the lake, which is I believe across the way,
02:48 so people are cutting across the railway lines to get to the lake.
02:52 Oh, the balance pits over there, yes.
02:54 Yes, so they're going into the lake, especially around the summer time when it's hot,
02:57 instead of going directly around and taking the railway as a shortcut as well, which we see in East Junction coming up.
03:03 So what would you say is the message, the risks that you need to reinforce to people then?
03:08 Sure. The key risk is there's plenty of train movements here daily,
03:13 and ultimately what our job is to do is minimise those risks to the public,
03:18 and certainly for youth trespass we want to make a real impact and just make parents aware that this is an ongoing issue,
03:26 we've seen it over the last couple of years, and we want to prevent harm to anyone.
03:31 So is there a deterrent? What sort of deterrent do you employ?
03:36 Well, we're using various trains and this is part of it.
03:39 So this is an engagement, education side of things.
03:42 Ultimately, the British Transport Offer involves the support network rail with that.
03:48 Obviously if there is regular trespassing, it's obviously a criminal offence and we'll enforce that.
03:54 We work very closely with Engineering, which is these guys over there as well.
03:59 So it's about engagement, enforcement and engineering, we all work together
04:04 and kind of see what we need to do to prevent that trespassing happening.
04:08 So we've done all we can with enforcement and engagement, that is where we're going with it for engineering,
04:13 and it's just something that we can do there to prevent the trespassing from happening even further.
04:17 Great. And I understand, I think you were quizzing the young kids around here today
04:22 about what the fine was if you get caught and things like that.
04:25 So can you just run us through that really, what the risks are if they get caught?
04:30 So when I go into schools, we usually talk about the law and the British Transport Police.
04:35 So if there's trespassing on the railway, it is £1,000.
04:39 We also then look at damage to the railway, which can lead to around a maximum of 10 years imprisonment.
04:47 And then you end up endangering safety standards, which could be up to as little as life imprisonment.
04:53 So we do talk about things like that, that trespassing on the railway and having a little bit of harmless
04:58 from the front can have serious consequences.
05:01 And even though there are those there, it can also result in people losing their lives as well
05:06 if the railway is in use correctly.
05:08 And so how has it been received today then so far?
05:11 It's been really good. Obviously I've just spoken to a group of children
05:15 and they recognised me because of the course that they had done at St George's,
05:20 which was really nice to see.
05:23 And they did really well on their questions and answers.
05:26 So it was really good to see that they have taken on board what I have said in schools
05:30 and hopefully they can share that as well with their friends and family.
05:33 Great. Thanks very much.